126 national geographic • april 2014
The Romans had a serious trash problem, though by our
standards it was good-looking trash. Their problem was am-
phorae. They needed millions of the curvy clay jars to ship
wine, olive oil, and fish sauce around the empire, and often
they didn’t recycle their empties. Sometimes they didn’t even
bother to pop the cork—it was quicker to saber the neck
or the pointy base, drain the thing, then chuck it. In Rome
there’s a five-acre, 160-foot-high hill, Monte Testaccio, that
consists entirely of shattered amphorae, mostly 18-gallon
By Robert Kunzig
Photographs by Rémi Bénali
A second- or third-
century bas-relief
depicts how freight
moved in Roman Gaul:
on riverboats, hauled
upstream by teams of
men. A life-size bust
thought to depict Julius
Caesar (above) was
found in the Rhône at
Arles in 2007. Shipyards
in the town built him
a dozen warships
in 49 B.C.
MuSÉE lAPIDAIRE D’AVIGNON,
FONDATION CAlVET (BAS-RElIEF); MuSÉE
DÉPARTEMENTAl ARlES ANTIquE (BuST)